ACAC Curling Championship - Final Day
Lac La Biche, AB (February 1, 2026) - The Medals. Sunday brought another round of battles to determine the eventual podium spots for the Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference Curling Championships. It also brought another round of see-saw changes in the standings.
"There were some surprises, lots of back and forth and great games. That's what you get with this calibre of curling," said ACAC President and Portage College Athletics Director Jim Knight.
The Medals
On the women's side, the SAIT Trojans began the morning with a loss to the Red Deer Polytechnic Queens, knocking SAIT into the bronze medal game with Portage. The Trojans blanked the Voyageurs in that one to earn the bronze medal. Red Deer went on to play the Concordia Thunder rink in the gold medal game, which went to an extra end that saw the Thunder roll to a 4-3 win and the gold medal.
The Mixed medal round began with a NAIT Ooks win over the Lakeland Rustlers, sending the Rustlers to the bronze medal game with Concordia, where Lakeland earned the bronze with an 8-3 win. In the gold medal game, it was a north-south battle of the 'AITs' with the Trojans showing no signs of horsing around, beating the Ooks to win gold.
The men's medal morning began with SAIT beating Concordia and sending the Thunder to the bronze match to face the Red Deer Polytechnic Kings. Concordia came out of that one with the medal. In the gold medal match, it was the North and South 'AITs' again. SAIT came into the final game after beating Red Deer in the quarterfinals and Concordia in the morning's semifinal game. NAIT also came to the final on a two-game streak, and – Ooks, they did it again, beating the Trojans 8-3 to take the gold.
Keeping it fun
"The whole championship weekend was full of highlights for the student-athletes, coaches, fans, sport officials and the community", said Knight, adding that the main goal overall - for all ACAC event hosts – is to make the experience memorable.
"I've been to so many championships as a president, and I've been with our teams — at each one, there might be some of these student-athletes where it's their first time at an event like this, or it could be their last chance to compete at this level — so we want to make it memorable for them. We want to give them something they can remember and say, 'Hey, I went to those championships, it was a lot of fun, we had a blast.' That's the big piece," he said.
For all the planning and behind-the-scenes work, the experience is what matters most, he explained.
"The games take care of themselves. We want to make sure the experiences around the games are something they take home with them, whether they take medals home or not."
The last time the Portage College Voyageurs hosted the ACAC curling championships, it was in St. Paul a decade ago. Knight says the next one might not be as long a wait.
"It is a ton of work to host, but we have a great team of volunteers and support. We heard a lot of positive comments and got great feedback," he said, adding that it was also important to see the community support for the event. "We had a lot of people come out to watch and get to see the calibre of the athletes in our conference. It was good for the community to see their college competing at this level and bringing this level of sport to the community."
For visiting teams, it was also a great chance to showcase the community, said Voyageurs curling coach Kyle Leach.
"We were pleased to have the opportunity to host all these teams – it was great for them to see the beautiful place we have. We have a world-class facility here in Lac La Biche County. We were getting lots of compliments. I think overall people were impressed," he said.
The medal-winners from the ACAC curling championships in the men's and women's events advance to the CCAA National championships in Regina from Feb 17-21.